Chapter 116

Chapter 116: Genuine Capability

[Today, I encountered a pretty arrogant guy who said he can use rice to cook more than 100 different edibles without any side dishes. Totally unbelievable, right? To my surprise, I didn’t manage to give him a hard time. I am now asking for any rare and odd edibles as long as they are cooked with the rice as the main ingredient.]

In Man Man’s Wechat Moments, she often posted photos of the appetizing cakes baked by her; therefore, those who interacted with her were either her friends or foodies. Upon being posted, this message was like a tossed stone that raised a thousand ripples.

Undoubtedly, most replies were rotten ideas, basically unpractical. And some were even desserts.

However, there were still several foods that seemed useful, for example, the Rice Pudding of Sophora Flower and Cranberry. It sounded like it would smell delicious and hence made Man Man tempted to try.

Nonetheless, she had already ordered another type of food.

The Buttered Rice was simple but also difficult. It used the least ingredients. The fewer the ingredients were used, the simpler they were. Only then could their importance and their freshness be reflected.

Based on the amount of one bowl, Yuan Zhou steamed the rice in a small pressure cooker, which cooked it quickly. In no more than 5 minutes, the rice was well steamed. Meanwhile, Yuan Zhou took out the butter and cut a small piece in preparations with the ceramic knife.

While scooping the rice, Yuan Zhou left a small hole in the middle and quickly put the butter inside before covering it again with a layer of good-looking white rice. Afterward, he poured out a spoonful of soy sauce and directly scattered it onto the rice before covering it with another layer, letting it form a round bulge.

When the ice-cold butter touched the boiling hot rice, it gradually melted and then oozed inside of the rice. At the same time, the soy sauce also flowed out slowly and came into contact with the soft and smooth butter, emitting a fantastic fragrance along with the delicious rice.

Delicious!!! Only this word could describe the taste.

“It’s the Buttered Rice you ordered.” Yuan Zhou carried the rice to Man Man.

“Alright, thank you, Boss Yuan,” she said with a smile while carrying the bowl of the rice herself.

“Enjoy your meal.”

“Ok, then I’ll start right now.” Man Man picked up the chopsticks and prepared to eat.

At that time, Man Man saw the butter and soy sauce slowly flowing out until it almost covered most of the rice. They flowed on the surface of the white rice, making the rice grains appear more delicious. If one smelled it carefully, the creamy fragrance of the butter and the sauce scent of the soy sauce, blended with the aroma of the rice, formed a miraculous and tempting aroma.

Without any hesitation, Man Man scooped up a mouthful of rice and stuffed it into her mouth. Due to the mixture of the butter and soy sauce, the fragrant rice was soft and delicious. When stuffed into her mouth and chewed, a blast of intense creamy fragrance and the scent of rice rushed down her throat. After chewing carefully, there was also a hint of salt inside, which balanced out the greasiness of the butter.

“It’s awfully yummy.” Man Man felt she had never eaten such scrumptious Buttered Rice, which made her feel that the Buttered Rice she had cooked only deserved to be eaten by the cat.

The customers in the small restaurant were talking while waiting in line to taste Yuan Zhou’s skills.

Nonetheless, the lights were still on in the office of the Investment Attraction Department, which usually started and got off work on time.

Shuxiao was still working at night when the phone suddenly rang in the quiet office with “Ding Ling Ling” sound.

“Pa”, Shuxiao was so frightened by the abrupt sound that he flung away the ball pen in his hand.

He heaved a sigh of relief and adjusted his glasses before answering the phone, “Hello, who’s that?”

“Shuxiao, you are still working. How are you doing with the preparation work?” A male voice, full of energy and with a strong bureaucratic tone, came from the other end of the phone.

“Director Qi, the materials are almost done already. I will put them on your table in a while.” Upon hearing the voice, Shuxiao stood upright subconsciously and answered quite seriously.

“Humm. Little Shu, you must do it well this time. If that person comes to invests in us, we would have then completed another task. Do it well,” the voice at the other end carried apparent satisfaction, with which he comforted Shuxiao.

“I will. Don’t worry, Director Qi. I have carefully checked all the documents and also made a detailed list of all our advantages. Just rest assured,” Shuxiao reported thoroughly.

“I’m still quite assured of the careful work you do. By the way, have you found the restaurant?” After giving some praise first, he continued asking.

“Not yet. Do I need to go and have a taste test first?” He asked. This could be considered to be the only benefit of completing the task, enjoying banquets using public funds.

“Of course, you should go there for a taste test first and book a place. Then on that day, you bring the investors there,” the director said quite happily on the phone.

“Got it, Director Qi. Thank you,” as soon as he heard that he would be taken along with, Shuxiao instantly felt the one-week overtime was worth it as it was a good opportunity for him to expand his social connections.

Now that Director Qi had promised to take him, the hard work throughout the entire week was finally worth it. Of course, the precondition was that they could succeed in persuading the big businessman to invest here.

“Ok. Get to your work and don’t get home too late,” the man comforted him with scripted words.

“Ok, Director Qi. I’m leaving right now,” Shuxiao said joyfully.

Shuxiao felt he was physically full of energy now and was able to continue working for another two hours.

Having returned back to his desk, Shuxiao briskly began to finish up the final part of the documents.

Half an hour later…

“Hu…”

“Finished, finally.” leaning against the chair-back, Shuxiao heaved a deep sigh of relief and brought up the documents for a final check to see if there were any errors.

Having finished all the work so quickly, Shuxiao earnestly placed the very important documents, which his future prospects relied on, onto the table of Director Qi meticulously and checked them over and over again to see if there were any wrinkles on the paper.

This document was repeatedly laid out on the table at least four or five times. Only after that did Shuxiao return to his position with satisfaction. With another careful look from a distance, he finally felt relieved and then turned on his computer, searching for distinctive Jin’ling restaurants.

Nowadays, everything could basically be found with the help of the computer. As soon as he entered the name into the search engine, numerous restaurants appeared on the screen. As an experienced guy when it came to surfing the internet, he knew those official introductions on the website were not trustworthy; therefore, he directly searched for private microblogs or forums to check the ratings according to the names of those restaurants.

Quite easily, he went to Meng Meng’s live broadcast. The messages made Shuxiao fairly dumbfounded as they were all favorable comments, requests of gathering for meals, finished requests or photos of the dishes presented. The interest of Shuxiao got immediately evoked.

He clicked on the PLAY button and prepared to watch the previous live broadcast to check how delicious the dishes exactly were.

“Today, Meng Meng’s Live Broadcast comes to Yuan Zhou’s restaurant again, which is said to have very delicious new dishes. Are you guys starting to look forward to those dishes? Then let’s go and have a meal there,” the lovable and fascinating voice of Meng Meng with a faint curl at the end sounded extraordinarily cute.

Subsequently, the scene shifted to the inside of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. Since it was not the first time the live broadcast was done here in the restaurant, Meng Meng didn’t capture the entire scene. Shuxiao could only see the girl Meng Meng and the wooden tables and chairs that appeared rather clean and tidy.

The following scene was Meng Meng ordering dishes and having meals. Only then did Shuxiao recall that he had probably forgotten something. It was that he hadn’t actually taken dinner until now. Watching Meng Meng eating the Jin’ling Grass and Phoenix-Tail Prawns dishes in the live broadcast, Shuxiao felt as if he could already smell the appetizing fragrance on the other side of the screen. His belly was growling with a “GuGu” sound and he even felt his stomach started to ache…

…